1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to shielding plates that are mountable to terminal modules of an electrical connector assembly, serving to shield columns of adjacent terminals from crosstalk.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common, in the electronics industry, to use right angled connectors for electrical connection between two printed circuit boards or between a printed circuit board and conducting wires. The right angled connector typically has a large plurality of pin receiving terminals and at right angles thereto, pins (for example compliant pins), that make electrical contact with a printed circuit board. Post headers on another printed circuit board or a post header connector can thus be plugged into the pin receiving terminals, making electrical contact therebetween. The transmission frequency of electrical signals through these connectors is very high and requires not only balanced impedance of the various contacts within the terminal modules to reduce signal lag and reflection but also shielding between rows of terminals to reduce crosstalk.
Impedance matching of terminal contacts has already been discussed in document EP-A-0422785. Cost effective and simple designs of right angle connectors has also been discussed in EP-A-0422785, whereby the modular design makes it easy to produce shorter or longer connectors without redesigning and tooling up for a whole new connector, but only producing a new housing part into which a plurality of identical terminal modules are assembled. As shown in the aforementioned document, shielding members can be interposed between adjacent terminal modules. This requires however, either an insert to replace the shield or a thicker terminal module to take up the interposed shielding gap if the shielding is not required. The shielding disclosed in EP-A-0422785 has a pin receiving terminal end that is inserted into a housing module cavity, and a pin contact end for contacting the printed circuit board. This shield is relatively expensive to manufacture and assemble.